Kukla's Korner Hockey

He said that there was no timeline on his return, although he will be travelling with the team for the upcoming road trip, which sees them visit the Edmonton Oilers on Monday and the Minnesota Wild on Thursday.

He said that he needed to work on his strength and timing and “feeling comfortable in one-on-one battles.”

“I had to be patient,” he said of returning to practice with the team. “That was my biggest thing. I had to keep telling myself ‘baby steps.’ It’s a process and you can’t get ahead of the process.

“I still have to be patient. There’s still a long way to go.”

Coach Alain Vigneault seemed more positive, saying that he thought Kesler had “an opportunity to come help us after a couple of practices.” He did add that coming on the road trip was part of that process, so it seems unlikely to see him play in Minnesota, let alone Edmonton.

Kesler did seem to have plenty of jump and didn’t appear to be holding back when shooting the puck.

Comments

this should give sufficient notice to the Rogers Arena crew - as well as all of those around the league - to prepare their Zambonis to account for the increased ice wear as a result of Kesler diving, flailing, and collapsing to the ice in the hopes of drawing penalties - especially since he is no longer interested in scoring goals in this league.